Wednesday, April 11, 2012

SWBTS has new DSS fragments

MORE DEAD SEA SCROLLS FRAGMENTS at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary:
Jordan- Southwestern Seminary to unveil Dead Sea Scroll fragments

MENAFN - Jordan Times - 11/04/2012

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from Fort Worth, Texas, today unveils its newest acquisition of biblical Dead Sea scroll fragments, according to a seminary statement made available to The Jordan Times on Tuesday.

The event, which takes place in a Jordanian goat hair tent, presents a fragment of Dead Sea scrolls from the Paleo-Leviticus period, and a first edition 1516 Erasmus Greek New Testament, according to the statement.

The seminary invited Naser Abu Abdullah, a Jordanian bedouin expected to follow in his father's footsteps as head of the Ajrami tribe, to pitch the tent on Monday "as his ancestors have for generations", says the statement.

Abu Abdullah is expected to demonstrate how to roast coffee beans and answer questions through a translator while he serves coffee at the event, according to the statement.

Free coffee!
Attending the event are Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson and seminary professors, including those responsible for the institution's ongoing archaeology digs in Israel and Cyprus.

According to the Southwestern Seminary, it owns more Dead Sea Scroll fragments than any institution outside Jordan and Israel. The seminary will host the "Dead Sea scrolls and the Bible" exhibition from July to January 2013, displaying 16 scroll fragments, according to the statement.

[...]
Apparently this means that SWBTS has acquired still more fragments in recent months. As of December of last year they had nine or ten. No details so far on the contents of the new fragments. For that matter, reports on the contents of the earlier nine or ten were not very informative. Background here and links.

UPDATE: There is an announcement of the event with more details here. (HT reader Matthew Hamilton.)